It's Almost A Lifetime Ago...
But almost 30 years ago I spent a number of years working for a well known high street jewellers in the UK. It always claimed that it was Britain's most popular and largest.
I cannot speak for how every branch was run but the branch I was at really was as close to the comedy TV series "Are You Being Served!" from the Management down to those on the shop floor resembled all the characters.
We had our own Mr Lucas who thought every young woman fancied him and tried to impress. We had the attractive young female that was similar to Miss Brahms. We had our own Mrs Slocombe who was a snob and put on a voice for the customers and called everyone "Sir" and "Madam"(She even dressed in a similar manner and had a similar hairstyle)and yes, we had our own version of Mr. Humphries...who did I resemble?
I might be likely to say this but I cannot think of anyone.
And it was one of those shops that you felt you had to prove that you were earning your wages, even if there were no customers. But you can only clean the counters, dust the shelves and products and vacuum the carpet, move the stock around the windows so often. That was mainly done so the displays were not dusty and most of the time everything went back into the exact same spot unless something was sold.
You'd vacuum the carpet, polish the glass cabinets at the end of the day and do the same thing as you walked in the next morning.
You did not open until 9am but were expected to be at your counters at least 15 minutes before opening(even earlier if you could manage it)and though the shop closed at 5.30pm, you were fortunate if you could get away before 6pm, so you were averaging a nine and half hour day(approx forty seven and half hours a week)for a very basic wage and by the time you add travel time to and from work you would be adding approx another hour to your working day and see quite a lot of the money you earned taken away.
Lets be honest you had to also add the time it takes to get ready and have a quick breakfast and after work have a meal and try and get some time to yourself so once you take out time to sleep you had approx 4-5 hours to do something you enjoy if you were not tired.
It was very rare anyone was waiting for the shop to open or would still be there stopping us from closing. I never remember anyone beating a path to our door.
I think you had to work there at least 5 years to earn two weeks paid annual leave. And as you virtually had to work all public holidays they still made it difficult to claim them back during the year.
The wages were acceptable for the time but only if you were married and there was another wage coming in or you were still living at home with your parents but again if you were then paying towards your board what you earned came down even more.
And no you did not get any commission on what you sold.
It wasn't my happiest time, I was popular with customers and all my training went well and I had glowing reports from HQ but at branch level, to be honest, there was a lot of bullying of the newer members of staff that came in and I stayed the longest. I doubt it would be allowed these days.
Its been years since I passed by the branch I worked at but I have seen it and have some others, they certainly have changed...they are more modern for sure and they seem to have very few staff who are mainly female. And its all open plan and very brightly lit.
I suppose that they can prove that the new design works and draws in customers and I might feel different myself if I felt I wanted anything that they sell but it doesn't attract me. And perhaps it is coincidence(and they probably do have busy times)but whenever I go past it always seems to be no customers and the staff are standing around. Everything is tidy and clean but they don't look as though they are forced to look busy anymore just for the sake of it.
I cannot speak for how every branch was run but the branch I was at really was as close to the comedy TV series "Are You Being Served!" from the Management down to those on the shop floor resembled all the characters.
We had our own Mr Lucas who thought every young woman fancied him and tried to impress. We had the attractive young female that was similar to Miss Brahms. We had our own Mrs Slocombe who was a snob and put on a voice for the customers and called everyone "Sir" and "Madam"(She even dressed in a similar manner and had a similar hairstyle)and yes, we had our own version of Mr. Humphries...who did I resemble?
I might be likely to say this but I cannot think of anyone.
And it was one of those shops that you felt you had to prove that you were earning your wages, even if there were no customers. But you can only clean the counters, dust the shelves and products and vacuum the carpet, move the stock around the windows so often. That was mainly done so the displays were not dusty and most of the time everything went back into the exact same spot unless something was sold.
You'd vacuum the carpet, polish the glass cabinets at the end of the day and do the same thing as you walked in the next morning.
You did not open until 9am but were expected to be at your counters at least 15 minutes before opening(even earlier if you could manage it)and though the shop closed at 5.30pm, you were fortunate if you could get away before 6pm, so you were averaging a nine and half hour day(approx forty seven and half hours a week)for a very basic wage and by the time you add travel time to and from work you would be adding approx another hour to your working day and see quite a lot of the money you earned taken away.
Lets be honest you had to also add the time it takes to get ready and have a quick breakfast and after work have a meal and try and get some time to yourself so once you take out time to sleep you had approx 4-5 hours to do something you enjoy if you were not tired.
It was very rare anyone was waiting for the shop to open or would still be there stopping us from closing. I never remember anyone beating a path to our door.
I think you had to work there at least 5 years to earn two weeks paid annual leave. And as you virtually had to work all public holidays they still made it difficult to claim them back during the year.
The wages were acceptable for the time but only if you were married and there was another wage coming in or you were still living at home with your parents but again if you were then paying towards your board what you earned came down even more.
And no you did not get any commission on what you sold.
It wasn't my happiest time, I was popular with customers and all my training went well and I had glowing reports from HQ but at branch level, to be honest, there was a lot of bullying of the newer members of staff that came in and I stayed the longest. I doubt it would be allowed these days.
Its been years since I passed by the branch I worked at but I have seen it and have some others, they certainly have changed...they are more modern for sure and they seem to have very few staff who are mainly female. And its all open plan and very brightly lit.
I suppose that they can prove that the new design works and draws in customers and I might feel different myself if I felt I wanted anything that they sell but it doesn't attract me. And perhaps it is coincidence(and they probably do have busy times)but whenever I go past it always seems to be no customers and the staff are standing around. Everything is tidy and clean but they don't look as though they are forced to look busy anymore just for the sake of it.
posted by The Great Gildersleeve | 6:53 am
2 Comments:
Do you remember customers? Or ex colleagues, maybe you should give them a ring. On weekends did you get paid double: jewel time? (groan!)
4 to 5 hours free time...you were lucky!
I suspect many have left this world or are quite elderly. I did a search of one or two on the web out of curiosity without luck.
I say free time of course you couldn't really go far or do much on the wage you had during the week and unless you could manage to tag a day off to the Sunday the shop was closed(These days it probably would be open Sundays)your day off was split between Mon-Fri.
That free time was between 7pm-Midnight but really you were heading for bed not much after 10pm, I suppos 11pm onwards was considered late.
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